


Not Quite Perfect

by starryeyedsea



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-16
Updated: 2009-11-16
Packaged: 2017-10-03 01:56:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryeyedsea/pseuds/starryeyedsea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An interlude on a ship brings a very important first for Zuko and Mai</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Quite Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the kindoflikeyou exchange over at LiveJournal

The ship that Azula had arranged to take them home was the most orderly ship that Zuko had ever sailed on in his life. Not one thing was out of order or messy. It lacked even the faint camaraderie and hominess of the ship that Zuko had sailed for 3 years during his banishment. It was formal, orderly, and rigid.

And Zuko felt distinctly misplaced. Oh on the outside he looked fine, but on the inside his emotions were in knots still on overdrive from everything that had happened in Ba Sing Se.

But at the moment, Zuko wished that it would all just go away. He didn't want to think about anything, not his Uncle, not the Avatar who Zuko suspected was not dead, not his father, or home, or his sister, or the last three years, or the next three years. All he wanted to was to escape into a vacuum where nothing mattered. Yes, somewhere where he didn't have to feel at all.

But he knew now that that was never going to happen. Nothing was going to the way he thought it would Everything he was feeling, seeing, and doing felt wrong.  So he was languishing through the lower decks of the ship towards the one thing about this whole situation that actually felt right. Thus he was standing looking at the gray metal of the door to Mai's room and wondering just how to approach her.

Sure they had kissed in Ba Sing Se, but that was different and she had initiated that whole thing, and well Zuko knew that he was not that skilled when it came to talking to women, especially one as bright and beautiful as Mai.

 He had been too awkward and silly before his banishment to approach her properly, although he knew that there had been something there, but now it was worse. Which was just more bad luck for Zuko. One would think things would be easier now that he knew she felt the same way and they had kissed and all that. Weren't things supposed to get easier?

Of course that is true for other people, Zuko thought, but not for me, never me. If it were to happen to me that would be the end of the world.

But all that thinking still did not help him with his problem. Right now, he just wanted to be happy, and being happy meant talking to Mai, and maybe later kissing Mai. None of this was going to be accomplished by him standing like an idiot at her door.

Finally, he decided enough was enough and he raised his knuckle to knock on her door, and he tapped it rather softly three times.

There was no response. So he knocked again. Still no response. He leaned his head against the door to see if he could hear any movement.

"Zuko, what are you doing?" 

Zuko turned beet red and turned to see Mai, his girlfriend, standing there, arms crossed one perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised.

"Um, just coming to see you," he said.

"Then why wouldn't you just knock?" she asked.

"I did, I just, you didn't answer, which is obvious now cause you weren't in there, and when you didn't respond I just wanted to listen to see you were okay," Zuko said.

Mai sighed.

"Most people, Zuko, would assume if no one came to the door that the person wouldn't be home," she said.

"Yeah," he said, and looked down sheepishly. This wasn't going well. This wasn't going well at all.

"So did you need something?" she asked.

"What?" he asked.

"Did you need something," she said, "I assume you did not come to just make friends with my door." 

"I…" Zuko said, but couldn't think of an adequate thing to say. 'I wanted to see you' was a little to open, he needed another reason. As if there was one.

He stuttered and mumbled, and finally could not even look her in the eye. This was embarrassing, there was no reason he should act like this. So their relationship had changed, he should still be able to look her in the eye.

He heard her sigh, and she walked over and gently nudged him so that she could open the door.

"Look you don't need to tell me," she said, "just come in."

They went in and Mai carefully closed the door behind her. Zuko settled down for a moment and then had a mini freaking moment when he realized he was actually sitting on Mai's bed.

"So what do you want to do?" she asked.

"Um, I don't know," he said, sheepishly still noticing how soft her sheets were, and his mind was wandering places that he wasn't used to going.

"Well it is a ship," she said, "not much to do. " 

"Let me guess," Zuko said, "you're bored." 

"Yes, but I am curious," she said, "we were supposed to meet later on tonight, why come over now." 

"Well, I just…" 

"Yes…"

"I wanted to see you!" he blurted.

Mai smiled, but Zuko wasn't ready to face it just then and kept going on.

"And I have been so confused, nothing is right, I am not happy, except when I am with you, and I want to be happy, but now that I am here, I don't know what to say because you're pretty, and a girl, and your room smells nice…" 

Mai smirked through this and smiled, until it got to the point where Zuko was talking about how nice the Fire Nation Tapestry in her cabin was (which she didn't get since there was one like it in every room) and finally decided she needed to step in.

"Zuko…" 

"And I am kind of nervous and this isn't going well…"

"Zuko…" 

"And I am worried about Uncle," 

"HEY!" 

Zuko finally shut up and looked at Mai in a weirdly calm way. And he literally felt a shiver run down his body at her stern expression.

"Y..Yes Mai," he said.

"Just shut up," she said, and before he could respond she pressed her lips against his.

He was froze for a moment, and she backed off.

"I have something that we can do," she said.

"Really," he said, "what's that?" 

"Just follow my lead," she said and pulled him in for another kiss, this one longer than the last.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and reciprocated by wrapping his arms around her waist. It was a mere seconds later when he felt her tongue enter his mouth, and he groaned, not yet being able to put into words in his mind what exactly wanted.

All he knew was that the heavy kissing soon lead to him being pushed back onto the and then rolling over to get a better feel of her body pressed tightly against his own.

This was what he had wanted. Why he had come here. Of all the things he thought he had missed those three years, this was the only one going right. This was the only thing that felt perfectly in place. And though he hadn't really kissed her before leaving, he figured had he not have been banished this whole thing would have occurred much sooner.

When both their robes and garments slipped off and she began to run hand up his side did Zuko finally forget to think and process and let himself fall into oblivion.

x-x-x-x-x-x

 

About 15 minutes later, naked and a little tired, both Mai and Zuko were on their backs, wrapped in Mai's sheets and staring up at the gray ceiling in silence.

"That," Zuko said, "was great." 

"Mmmmhmmm." 

"You are really the best I've ever had," he said, and that Mai turned to look at him.

"Zuko," she said in a blunt kind of voice, "I am the only one you've ever had." 

"What? How did you know?" he asked, deciding that Mai was too sharp to buy an outright denial.

"Well for starters, it would have lasted longer," she said, "and you didn't quite know what to do with your hands.

Zuko turned to her eyes wide open.

"It can go on for longer," he asked, "I don't know if I can take it much longer. And what was wrong with my hands?" 

"Nothing, it was just you were kind of grabby," she said, "and confused." 

"Oh," he said, and went back to staring at the ceiling, something sinking inside him.

"How long should it go for?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said, "I don't think there is an official length of time." 

"But how do you know it can go for longer?" he asked.

"You wouldn't believe what women talk about when men aren't around," she said.

"YOU mean you talk about this with my sister?" he asked, a look of horror on his face.

"Lord no," she said, "Azula doesn't have patience for that kind of talk. I did at one time attend a school for girls, and I have overheard older women talking." 

"You won't talk about this will you?" Zuko asked, not keen on the idea of Mai talking about the whole.

"Zuko, do I look like the kind of girl who kisses and tells," Mai said.

"Well no but…" Zuko started.

"Zuko, trust me, I am not going to blab about your performance to anyone else," she said.

She sat up, and he followed suit and he looked to her, red sheets and hair strategically blocking the sight of her breasts. Mai rolled her eyes at the hungry look that once again appeared in Zuko's eye, and nudged head up with her finger so that he looked her straight in the eye.

"Zuko, don't worry so much. This will be fine," she said, "We will have plenty of time to practice." 

"But I wanted it to be good for you," he said.

"It was," she said, "and it can only get better. You, Zuko are going to be the best and the worst for me." 

"What?" he said.

Mai smiled.

"Never mind," she said, "just shut up and kiss me." 

And he did, and even though he knew that his life was far from perfect and would continue to be that way, at that moment he was the closest to perfection that he could get.


End file.
